News headlines in 2014, page 54

SANGAREDDY, India, Aug 25 (IPS) - Tugging at the root of a thorny shrub known as ‘juliflora', which now dots the village of Chirmiyala in the Medak District of southern India's Telangana state, a 28-year-old farmer named Ailamma Arutta tells IPS, "This is a curse that destroyed my land."

BEIRUT, Aug 24 (IPS) - In a country where civil liberties remain the prerogative of the powerful and wealthy, the Lebanese gay scene is to be treaded carefully.

ODDUSUDDAN, Sri Lanka, Aug 24 (IPS) - In this dust bowl of a village deep inside Sri Lanka's former conflict zone, locals will sometimes ask visitors to rub their palms on the ground and watch their skin immediately take on a dark bronze hue, proof of the fertility of the soil.

TIJUANA, Mexico, Aug 23 (IPS) - The areas under the low bridges over a section of the canalised channel of the Tijuana River that runs along the border between Mexico and the United States have become enormous open-air toilets.

KAMPALA, Aug 23 (IPS) - Growing up with five brothers, soccer-mad Majidah Nantanda had half a team to compete against at home in Makindye, a suburb in Uganda's capital, Kampala. But at her school, in the 1990s, there were two sports rules: "Netball for the girls and football for the boys," recalls the 32-year-old, as she stands on the sidelines of a boy's game in Makindye.

WASHINGTON, Aug 23 (IPS) - This week's video-taped beheading of a U.S. journalist by the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) has spurred renewed calls for President Barack Obama to broaden Washington's military efforts to strike the terrorist group, including in Syria.

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 22 (IPS) - Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, in a rare moment of political candour, lashed out at Israel last week, questioning its "respect for the principles of distinction and proportionality" - particularly in the context of the civilian death toll that kept rising to over 2,000 Palestinians, with more than 75 percent civilians.

ROME, Aug 22 (IPS) - In 1979, I had a debate at the United Nations with the late Stan Swinton, then the very powerful and brilliant director of Associated Press (AP). At one point, I furnished the following figures (which had been slow to change), as an example of Western bias in the media:

HAVANA, Aug 22 (IPS) - The Mariel special economic development zone, the biggest construction project undertaken in decades in Cuba, emerged thanks to financial support from Brazil, which was based on political goodwill, a strategy of integration, and business vision.

UXBRIDGE, Canada, Aug 21 (IPS) - Increased effort is needed to protect Australia's iconic Great Barrier Reef, which is in serious decline and will likely deteriorate further in the future, according to a new report.